


The Ardent Hearts of Stars

by Razzledazzy



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Bad Puns, Fix-It, Kid Fic, M/M, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Not Season 2 Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2018-10-05 13:35:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10309250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Razzledazzy/pseuds/Razzledazzy
Summary: Peter Nureyev is a man that's tired of running away from his life, so when Juno leaves bed the morning after, he follows.It might just be the best decision of his life, second only to leaving Juno his name in the first place.





	1. Run After Me

The bell doesn’t ring. There wasn’t a knock. It just opened. In truth, Juno had been bracing for it all day.

He’d told Rita not to bother coming in. Told her that he was taking time off after his ‘sabbatical’, but he had left her a quick comm to let her know that he was okay. Relativity speaking.

It wasn’t her. Of course it wasn’t.

“Juno, are you in here?” There was no doubting that voice. It was Peter Nureyev waltzing right back into his life. Perhaps, he never left this time. Maybe he came straight over after waking up.

There was no avoiding this then. That might’ve been a good thing. If Nureyev had just left, with no word. Just accepted that he ran… He wouldn’t know how he felt about that. But it wouldn't feel good.

Not like this was probably going to be particularly pleasant.

Best to just get right down to it.

“Look Nureyev, I’m not proud.”

“Well, that’s not helpful,” Nureyev sighed. It was a familiar sigh. Softer. Like the kinds they’d shared together last night.

Peter entered the room like he belonged there, a man with a problem looking for a private eye to solve it, to embrace a cascade of overwrought cliches. Except that Juno didn’t know if he could solve the mess he made of this. All he needed to do was stay with Nureyev, they could have left together. It would have been- well, it would have been wonderful. An adventure.

Nureyev forwent the couch in his office entirely, instead he hopped up on the desk like he didn’t intend to move for a while.

The silence was strung out worse than a Saffron addict. Juno had built a life on being good at waiting, but his patience failed him now. His hands ached to touch Peter, to reassure him. Of what, he didn’t know. Instead he shuffled some papers on his desk, the order of them not mattering as he placed them to the side.

“I didn’t think you would come for me, thought that you’d think better of sticking around,” Juno sighed, removing his hat and running a hand through his hair.

“Juno, I swore I would come back for you,” Nureyev chided, his voice was uncharacteristically soft, the voice that had talked him through torture, what he turned to. Stupid. Stupid of himself to think that he could just forget that. That their minds had joined. What he had said. He hadn’t even managed to be able to forget the scent of his cologne the first time around.

Juno’s remaining eye rolled, “That was when we were captured.”

“And who decided that there was a limitation on that? That I wouldn’t keep coming back for you? Because they were sorely mistaken,” Nureyev’s voice was thick with emotion. Anger? Passion? Disappointment? A mix of the three.

“I just-” Juno began talking and then choked on his own words. He leaned forward leaning his face into Nureyev’s side. Truth was a commodity, and he’d already spent so much of his on Peter Nureyev. “I don’t know if I can leave Hyperion city. It lurks deep in my bones. It’s as much a part of me as I am a part of it. For all it’s flaws, it's home. I belong here. I want to go with you, but-”

“Oh Juno,” Peter sighed, fingers carding through the detective’s hair. Treasuring each touch as if it were the last. If he responded to this wrong then it might be. Over before it began, one of the most tragic love stories of this dusty red planet.

“I think I understand,” Peter sighed and brought one of Juno’s hands to his lips.

Scooting off the desk, Nureyev kneeled before Juno’s chair. It was a change, for Juno to look down into Nureyev’s bright, shining eyes instead of up. Nothing like the eyes of his owl eyed mentor, nothing like any eyes he had seen before.

“Juno Steel, you know my past. That I’ve never had a home. I’ve made my home in discovering things, and found nothing worth keeping in those discoveries except the drive to make more of them. You told me that I was the best thing to ever happen to you. Well, I don’t think that I know who I was before I met you. For all my faces, with all my identities, I wasn’t any of them.

And then you stormed your way into my life somehow, right in my path where I least expected you, and shook the very planet beneath my feet.”

Juno snorted, a genuine laugh bubbling up, “Nureyev-”

“Ah-ah, not yet dearheart let me finish. Now where was I? Oh yes, you shook the ground beneath me. That’s… and that’s… difficult to articulate,” Nureyev chuckled. “I can’t explain it, it’s like you changed the core of my being. Everything I thought I knew, turned on its side like Neptune. Suddenly I wanted to be called back somewhere. I didn’t just want to pick up and move on from Mars like I did from so many other planets. I gave you my name.

And that’s something I’m willing to do again. Give you my name. In whatever capacity you wish to take it.”

“That sounds suspiciously like a marriage proposal, Nureyev,” Juno’s voice held a timber of surprise, almost faint. Like he’d just taken a stunner to the chest. Maybe he had and this was all a dream.

“Good to see you haven’t lost your edge, detective,” Nureyev teased.

“But your work-”

“You don’t have to answer that right now, but I just wanted you to know that regardless of where I go from here with my life. You’re always going to be here tugging me back to Mars. If you can’t leave and I can’t always stay- well, we’ll work something out.”

“Nureyev, I have so many issues.”

“And those aren’t going to vanish one day. You had issues when I fell for you, I’m sure you’ll have them when we finally meet our last impossible situation, but I’d rather do that with you. Over and over again.”

“You make a good argument,” Juno whispered, the sounds of the city ringing in the silence of his office. Off the walls, through his bones.

“You still haven’t answered me,” Nureyev left the phrase hanging in the air.

“Peter.”

“Yes?”

“Kiss me.”

And all the papers that Juno had so carefully been straightening on his desk ended up all over the floor.

 

* * *

 

“I think earlier was the first time you’ve used my first name,” Peter said later that night, Juno had an expression on his face that wouldn’t look out of place on a dazed starlet. Nureyev’s words didn’t even register on his radar.

“I think I want to leave Mars,” Juno confessed.

There was a pause. “After all of that you just changed your mind?”

“No, no. Not like that. We’re still getting married, you’re not getting out of that this easy. I think we should take a trip off plant. Or a few of them. A mix of work and pleasure, if you will.”

“Oh I know I will, but what brought this on?” Peter asked curiously.

They were tangled together on the couch in Juno’s apartment. It was miraculously untouched after his absence. There was nothing overturned, it wasn’t ransacked. It was more than Juno could have hoped for after word got out about the party. Or after what went down in the Oasis. They started up a stream on separate sides of the couch, but after an hour Juno had migrated almost completely into Peter’s lap, putting all of Nureyev’s tall stature to use.

Juno muttered something, looking out of the window. It didn’t escape Peter’s notice, of course.

“What was that dear?”

“I’m worried about you getting into trouble on your own,” Juno sighed.

Peter smiled, it looked good on him. “Oh so you’d rather get into trouble with me?”

“Well, it’d be a hell of a lot more fun than worrying about you constantly while you were away.”

“You are aware that most of my work is on the other side of the law.”

“Peter if they locked me up for every law I’d broken during my years of investigating they’d have to start measuring hoosegow sentences in the lifetimes of suns, not people.”

“Well, when you put it like that.”

“And I know you, Peter. You’ve learned a lesson from this whole thing with Miasma.”

“Of course I’ve learned to be more discerning about my clients. That mistake was enough of a lesson for a lifetime,” Peter sighed, a finger tracing the cheek under the bandage over Juno’s eye. “I made it, but you suffered for it.”

“Like I didn’t get into that mess without your help. Swallowing the Saffron pill was all my own brilliant idea,” Juno leaned into the gesture. The contact of it soothing decades of aches and pains that Detective Steel had endured that left a broken Juno in the wake of it all.

Peter placed a kiss where his hand was, and continued to place kisses along the side of Juno’s face. “I want to get married under my own name,” Peter whispered into Juno’s ear.

“That might pose a bit of a problem, it would be a dangerous thing to do. For both of us. We both bring enemies to the table on this."

“True, true. At the risk of sounding cliche, I believe we would be stronger for facing them together. Did you know the Kanagawas’ put out an assassination order on you?”

Juno pulled back, his arms still linked around Peter’s neck, “What?”

“I took care of it.”

“Again, what!” Juno asked, again, voice a little more shrill.

“It was a simple hack, with some blackmail. Threatened a few people,” Peter shrugged, taking Juno’s arms with the movement.

“But you’d left by then-” Juno stuttered in confusion.

Peter rolled his eyes, somehow the movement looked elegant on him, “And I immediately wanted to come back. The first time I’d ever wanted to return to a planet, and not only did I want to- I _did_ come back.”

“I love you,” Juno blurted out. Not half as elegant as last night. Or the hundreds of times that his brain had leaked the concept directly into Peter Nureyev’s mind.

“Yes, love, we covered that-”

“Not done-” Juno covered Peter’s mouth with his hand. “I love you, but Peter Steel and Juno Nureyev sound awful as names. We’re going to have to hyphenate. Might still use my name for work purposes. Though knowing Rita, that won’t last.”

“That works for me. Though I think I’m going to keep falling back on my Duke Rose identity while I’m away.”

“That hasn’t been compromised yet?”

“Of course not. It’s one of the most ironclad identities that I’ve worked on. I didn’t create it until after I met you, after all,” Peter said, running a hand through Juno’s hair again.

“Detective Steel-Nureyev doesn’t sound horrible. But it does sound like I stole you.”

“That is a horrible pun, you’re going to keep making it aren’t you? You have to admit, Detective Rose sounds pretty good, for business trips of course.”

“Of course,” Juno answered, returning the light teasing tone as a hot red flush traveled over his skin, warming it under Nureyev’s fingertips.

Peter noticed this, and a grin spread across his features. Very much like a six eyed cat that just figured out how to steal a shipment of non-replicated cream. “Oh, Detective Rose, have you caught yourself a thief?” Nureyev purred, eyes alight with mischief.

“Peter, for the love of-” he replied, the flush on his skin growing even darker.

Peter fought back a laugh, continuing, “Are you going to take me in Detective? Oh Detective, I can’t go to jail. I’ll do anything-”

Juno kissed him, just to shut him up of course. A consuming kiss that brought them both together. Pressed closer and closer together along the couch. They’d need to take this to a bed soon. Or the floor. He wasn’t picky but the couch wasn’t wide enough for two.

That was when a crash of noise broke through their spell of intimacy. Like a whirlwind into a quiet room Rita bounced inside. Red hair messy all over her head. Curls bouncing in different directions as she came through the door at a frantic pace. “Boss, boss! The alarm system said someone came in and then left! You better have a damn good explanation as to why you was in your office on your day off, you- Oh!”

Rita’s mouth gaped open, words failing her. It took a lot to make Rita speechless. Juno could count on one hand the amount of times he’d managed it. Now he’d have to start counting on two hands. Inconvenient.

She squealed and covered her mouth with her hands.

“Why boss, I didn’t know you had a gentleman caller! And with that cute Dark Matters agent too! I was tryin’ to tell you he was a tall drink of water boss, and just your type-”

“Rita.”

“And then when he left you just seemed so sad, and I thought that was ‘cause you’d found out that he was crooked, which in Hyperion should be expected more often than not so I was like, ‘Rita there’s no way that’s why he’s so sad. You know Mister Steel, he’s not optimistic like that.’ Would have expected someone to double cross him. It happens often enough after all. That’s why I gotta do all those background checks and-”

“Rita.”

“Oh but then, you kept bein’ real spacey and all that, mumbling along about cologne and that note he’da left you. It was just like one of those stories on the streams you know. Tragic love and-”

“Rita!” Juno finally shouted, cutting her rambles off

“Yes, Mister Steel?”

“I’d like you to meet my fiance, Peter Nureyev,” Juno said, just barely keeping a straight face as he felt Peter’s laugh against his side.

“Your- your! Mister Steel!” Rita yelled, flinging her hands into the air half the contents of her handbag arcing through the air with them. “You didn’t even tell me you were seeing someone! Fake Dark Matters Agent or not, you shoulda told me. Not like I ain’t used to keepin’ secrets in the office.”

“Miss Rita,” Peter finally spoke, rolling her name across his tongue. “Why don’t you take a seat. It’s a rather complex story, and I’m sure Juno would like to tell you most of it.”

With very put upon sigh, Juno untangled himself from Peter’s lap, giving him a look that assured the thief they would be continuing _things_ later. He gestured for Rita to have a seat in the living room's lone sitting chair. Swinging by the kitchen to grab some drinks and tea for Rita.

“So Rita you see, after the party I called him, except I didn’t know it was going to be him, and then that was when the adventure began.”

 

* * *

 

“It was nice to see your secretary again, she was clearly worried about you.” Peter’s voice bounced around the room from the bathroom. After Rita left Peter had done his very best to convince Juno that they needed to take a communal shower. For economical purposes of course. Juno was nearly swayed, but the pain in his eye deterred him.

So Juno had showered first, with Peter following. Somehow, Peter had found the time to gather up all of his belonging and dump them around Juno’s bedroom in the interim. They hadn’t talked about moving in together but it just felt right. They were probably going to need more space than Juno’s shitty apartment could give them, he'd have to look into that. Sooner than later, if his gut feeling was anything to go off of.

He hadn’t moved since he left Old Town.

Putting that thought out of his mind. Juno gathered all the items he needed to apply his bandages.

_I can’t believe I almost lost him._

It’s Nureyev’s words, filtering through his brain again. That thought trailing against his skull like a gentle caress. Juno braced instinctively for the pain, but even as he waits. It never comes.

_I don’t know what I would have done._

The doctors they’d seen said the tumor was gone. All of it. His eye, everything. This shouldn’t still be happening because there was no martian tissue left at all… Just chalk it up to that good old Juno Steel luck with life that his freaky martian mind reading powers hadn’t gone away completely. That would be to convenient.

He hears Nureyev turn off the shower, the sounds from the bathroom as he slips into something a little more comfortable.

“Juno darling, did you want my help re-bandaging your wound?”

Juno considers saying no, out of habitual obstinacy. “Yeah, I do actually. Can’t really see what I’m doing over here.”

“By all means then, I’d be happy to assist.” Peter replies, climbing onto the bed beside him and deftly securing the bandages in place.

“Anyone ever tell you that you have the hands of a doctor?” Juno asked, catching one as it flashed in his new field of view and pressing a kiss to it.

“Can’t say that anyone has, actually.”

There was a moment where both parties waited for the other to say something. To clarify further. It drew out to the point of awkwardness. Had it been this awkward the first time they’d shared a bed in Oasis? Juno couldn’t remember through the haze of indecision and anger that had followed him around that day. Being caught wrong footed did that to him.

Fuck it.

Juno crawled back into bed, taking up residence in the middle of the bed rather than on his customary side, beckoning with one finger for Nureyev to follow him. Peter grinned wolfishly and obeyed, crawling forward as well to straddle Juno’s legs.

Nureyev leaned forward, and Juno stretched his neck up to kiss him, but they didn’t connect. Nureyev kept leaning until he reached the remote and flicked off the lights. The dim glow from the windows bathing the entire room in an ethereal light.

“Oh so that’s how it’s going to be,” Juno grinned, the light catching his teeth and reflecting off the planes of his face in dangerous way.

_Just as dangerous as both of his namesakes. Powerful as a goddess and as sharp as steel._

Nureyev shivered, leaning forward for a kiss and Juno obliged, meeting him halfway. If their first kiss had been one that lasted a lifetime, this one was one he’d love to repeat over and over so long as he lived.

Before it became too heated, Juno pulled away. Pressing a finger to Nureyev’s lips when he tried to follow his mouth for another.

“I can still hear your thoughts.”

Peter stilled. "Does it hurt?"

Juno considered it. The feeling that rolled around in his head was not the sharp pain behind his eyes. A quick swipe at his nose confirmed it wasn’t bleeding. Cautiously, Juno answered, “Not really?”

_Then you know exactly what I want to do with you, and I don’t have to stop kissing you to tell you how beautiful you look. We can delve into the larger repercussions of this in the morning as long as you’re sure you’re not in any pain._

Peter kissed the tip of Juno’s finger with one eyebrow raised. Juno huffed, but conceded, “Alright. Tomorrow it is.” Reaching out with his mind, the way he’d done a thousand times, he projected a thought of his own.

**_What are you waiting for?_ **

_Well, Detective Rose, I never thought you’d be so anxious to fall into my trap so quickly_.

**_Promises, promises, Mr. Rose._ **

 

* * *

 

This time, afterwards, they both fell asleep. They slept right through the time when they both would have woken up, having set no alarms the night before. And why would they? They had nowhere else to be.

Not even the harsh reality of the Martian sun in a clear sky could rouse them, by the time Peter began to stir, the sun was high in the sky and the shades hung limp in the windows.

_Mmmm- Juno. It’s probably afternoon by now, judging by the lack light streaming through your window shades._

**_Shhhhhh no talking._ **

_Not talking._

**_Think quieter._ **

_It’s time to get up._

**_Nah._ **

_I’ll make breakfast._

**_Good luck with that, have you seen my fridge? Plus no one’s been living here for three weeks or so. Damn, my rent’s probably late._ **

_Then we need to go shopping._

Peter pulled Juno closer to his chest, pulling his back flush against his stomach. In their time together he’d noticed that Juno rarely had moments to share his vulnerability. They were normally buried, to make another bad pun, under a wall of steel.

**_I can still hear you._ **

_You mean you can Steel hear me._

Juno groaned and smacked at Peter’s arm. “That was terrible.”

“What can I say, your puns are rubbing off on me dear.”

**_Something’s rubbing off on you all right._ **

“Oh is that the secret to waking you up?” Peter joked, face nuzzling against the back of Juno’s neck.

“You are insufferable. I love you,” Juno craned his neck to meet Peter’s mouth for a kiss.

After the kiss, Peter propped himself up on his elbow, “Mm, love you too.”


	2. Stay By My Side

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Kitty Cat Caper killed me, so long story short here we are with the Chapter 2 I said I probably wouldn’t write. No angst only happiness here. 
> 
> Also hey, I never realized that uh… I hadn’t published this before now. Because I am a loser that forgets to, you know, finish and upload things in a timely manner.

When Hyperion City caught news of the wedding, things predictably went sideways the way Juno least expected.

At least his dress was fine- in a strange shift of priorities, that was what he was choosing to focus on. The calm in the middle of the storm that was his current life.

He hadn’t expected Mick to tell everyone on the damn planet about his marriage. He was pretty sure that everyone, down to the last homeless drunk in Old Town, was aware the the city’s own Detective Steel was about to tie the knot.

It was, in a word, terrifying.

He expected every one of his enemies to come out swinging, for a legion of people he’d wronged to appear from the dust of Old Town and carry Peter away.

The current situation was even worse.

Everyone was congratulating them. People swung by the office, driven not by grievances, but by a compulsion to see things for themselves in person. Old ladies he hadn’t seen in years stopped him on the street as he tried to buy groceries to tell him exactly how happy they were about the situation. It was unnerving and unnatural. 

Cecil Kanagawa had been told about it on air, of course. It was almost worth the news going out to billions of people to see Cecil burst into tears of the non-fake variety. It was slightly less worth it to hear: ‘It was about time Junebug found his bedbug!’ broadcast to those same billions. Peter was never going to let that particular nickname go.

The hysterics only increased when Cecil found out who Juno was marrying.

“I set them up, you know.” Cecil maintained, telling anyone with a lens or an ear. Min was furious about it, but the ratings were through the roof and the current Kanagawa matriarch's hands were tied.

Juno suspected she extended her congratulations in the form of rescinded death threats.

It was _all_ too much.

Peter, of course, took to it like a duck to water. Fielding questions about his life, their life together, and what plans they had like he was talking about tea and not their entire future.

He preened, Juno grumbled, they both put their heads together to plan.

Rita of course, had a heavy hand in it. She had a cousin that knew people that could, quote: ‘Set you boys up real nice, and won’t put a lien on your kidneys to do it neither!’

Her help made things a little easier.

Juno’s head got so caught up in the planning process, that the day had arrived before he was half convinced this was really happening. Much less ready to actually go through with things.

He stood in front of a mirror, white and silver dress flaring around him like a shadow. His lips stained with the same color he’d been wearing during their first kiss. God, that felt like ages ago. Before he learned to trust Nureyev, and in turn learned to trust himself. Even if it wasn’t complete faith in himself, it was progress.

Cecil had been all too happy to let him know the brand as long as he was promised an invitation.

Juno wondered if he would live to regret that choice. He knew Cecil was going to find a way to stream the wedding one way or another. At least it saved him the trouble of finding a wedding photographer.

They should have eloped.

“Mister Steel? You in there?” Rita’s voice came from outside the door. Juno looked in at it in the mirror.

“Yeah, Rita, come in.”

“Only if you’re sure,” but she was already slipping inside. Slamming the door shut like Peter was having a stakeout right outside the door to get a peek of him before the wedding.

Maybe he was, he could always ask. They’d made a tentative agreement of no telepathy in public, and Juno really didn’t want Cecil or Mick to catch word of his condition. It was bad enough Sasha knew.

If he were honest, he didn’t think that she was going to show up. But when she knocked on the door to his apartment earlier, sunglasses and all, Juno found himself grateful that she had come. Even though the first thing she did was slug him in the shoulder and rant about how she had to find out from a Kanagawa stream, of all things, that he was getting married.  

She always did have a way of getting Juno to talk. He’d told her everything, in the confidence that only childhood friends could share. All about what he and Peter had been through. What they’d tried to stop.

How much she believed, Juno had no idea. There was always a chance she already knew. Dark Matters were always getting involved in that kind of trouble. If she was going to do anything with the information, as far as he was concerned, she was welcome to leave him out of it.

All in all, they made up a strange wedding party. Mick had pretty much begged to be Juno’s best man, and Peter had skillfully extended his wish for Sasha to be his. After all, if it weren’t for her they never would have met. She accepted, of course. Peter always knew how to compliment someone.

Rita was going to give him away, of course. She wouldn't hear of anything else.

Juno has 10 creds on Mick crying first.

As time to walk down the aisle drew nearer, Juno wondered if he wouldn’t be the first one crying. Or bolting. It wasn’t too late for Peter and him to elope.

“Rita, what if something happens,” Juno asked, bending over at Rita’s gesture so she could adjust the jeweled comb clipped into his hair.

“Dunno ‘bout that Mister Steel, there’s a good portion of the Hyperion City PD out there. As well as several influential crime families. Don’t know if there’s anyone brave enough to try somethin’ with that crowd. Aside from you and Peter of course. Hey this ain’t a setup for something is it? A sting operation? I saw something like this in a movie once and-”

“Not unless the punchline is the rest of my life, Rita.”

“Aw, you poet you. Anyways, you look beautiful Mister Steel,” Rita said, touching up the tiny details of his outfit the way she would touch up a part of her notes. Fixing the whole thing in her mind.

Her words didn’t do much to sooth the fretful prickle of unease at the base of his spine. Juno found himself playing with the soft curl of his undercut to dispel that anxiety. It had gotten longer, and Rita had styled it in a soft swoop in front of his face. It didn’t hide his missing eye, he didn’t want to hide it, but it complemented the asymmetry in a way that made him feel better about it.

Peter had lent him a pair of chained ear cuffs, with sapphires dangling from the chains to catch the light. Something about something old and something blue being the final touch. They complemented the overall white and silver color of the dress. How Peter managed that without seeing the dress was a mystery.

Abruptly, Juno realized that the anxiety thrumming through his body belonged to Peter, not himself.

Without thinking, he reached out with his mind, casting about for the familiar presence that was somewhere in the building. Or maybe he was just mentally shouting at anyone within range. Details.

**_Peter, what’s happening?_ **

_Nothing’s wrong._

**_That’s not an answer._ **

_I just got… worried. For a moment. Hearing from you is making it better._

**_What happened?_ **

_The thought suddenly occurred to me that you might not show up. For any number of reasons. Someone could hurt you. You could run. I couldn’t help you or stop it from happening._

**_Peter, calm down._ **

_I’m perfectly calm, Juno. It’s not like you have a history of running off without saying anything._

**_Ouch._ **

_I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant. Juno, I-_

**_It’s fine. It’s warranted. We really should have talked about it before now._ **

Juno swept his skirt to the side and sat down, avoiding contact eye contact with the mirror. He wanted to put his head in his hands, but knew that Rita would murder him for messing up his makeup. Or maybe that job would fall to Cecil- not that Cecil hadn’t already tried to kill him.

_Oh my god._

**_What? What is it?_ **

A moment passed without any word from Peter, and Juno was that much closer to clawing his way through the door to find out what was wrong.

_We’re getting married._

**_Uh, yeah. I’d figured that out by now. Kind of hard to miss the month of Rita becoming the world’s best wedding planner and the world’s worst secretary._ **

_We’re getting married._

**_Yeah._ **

Juno laughed, Peter laughed, they both sounded hysterical to anyone within earshot.

“Mister Steel-” Rita began, giving him an odd look.

Remembering just in time not to scrub at his eyes, Juno stopped Rita with a finger in the air. “Rita, please. It’s my wedding day. Call me Juno.”

Rita tapped her heels together and jumped over to give him a hug. “Oh Mister Steel! I mean, Juno! Oh you big softie you!”

“Rita, can’t breath. Corset and hugging is not recommended.”

“Right, sorry! Anyways it’s almost time.”

Time, for once it wasn’t Juno’s Steel’s top concern. There would be time after this, just like there’d been time before this. And Peter Nureyev was always on time.

There it was again, that overwhelming font of trust.

“Yeah, it’s finally time,” Juno smiled.

Oh god, it’s _actually_ time.

Juno was doing all right up until the point where all of the music started to swell, signalling that it was his time to enter.

The sound of it echoed off the high ceilings, casting it around so that Juno was sure every sap on the planet could hear the music if they opened a window. Or turned on literally any stream.

Rita patted his arm, but said nothing. She hip checked him when he didn’t start moving down the aisle.

“I’m right here with you,” she whispered, placing a firm hand on his arm as she straightened her back to walk forward, giving Juno the choice to walk with her or be dragged down the aisle. It was an easy decision.

So he walked, his mind on the swishing of Rita’s maroon skirt. It matched his lips, but clashed with her reddish hair. She didn’t seem to mind it all that much (after all, she’d had a hand in picking it out).

And then he saw Peter, and everything tunneled in his vision until all he could see was his lover’s face. It had happened before, when Peter was the only one, the only thing in his life that he could focus on, but those moments brought back less than happy memories of torture. Same old same old, you know.

Juno realized he was rambling in his mind instead of actually paying attention.

At least he hadn’t tripped.

Peter looked like a vision in white, his suit cut with sharp lines of maroon and red, contrasting yet complimenting the amethyst ear cuffs he’d gone with. He was practically dripping with the small purple stones, now that Juno was paying attention he could see them catch the light on his suit.

Peter grinned at him- Juno rolled his eyes until the rakish look softened to one of pure affection.

“Mister Steel, you’re cuttin’ off circulation to my arm,” Rita hissed in his ear, a teasing lit to her tone.

Rita’s arm was the only thing keeping him from sprinting up to Peter.

“Sorry,” he whispered out of the side of his mouth.

Why had they chosen a venue with an aslie this long? It was taking forever for him to reach Peter. He idly began to worry that they would run out of music before they reached each other.

Then he started hoping the music would end. It would be an excuse to run the final few yards up to Peter and not let go.

The music rose and then Rita was passing his hands to Peter’s; and both Sasha and Mick took up their place on each side of the couple.

Mick was already sniffling.

Peter’s hands had a death grip on his.

_I was worried._

**_Hey, you think it’s weird that nobody’s tried to shoot us yet?_ **

_No, the Kanagawas would have a fit._

**_Mhm._ **

_What?_

**_Nothing._ ** Juno grinned at Peter in response before ducking his head to the side to look at the official and not the hundreds of guests that he was sure he had no hand in inviting.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught Alessandra’s hair flashing against the panes of glass that constructed the vaulted ceiling. A sniper’s nest. What did it say about his life that he was relieved one of his close friends took it upon themselves to play sniper at his wedding?

Peter gave his hands a squeeze, and Juno suddenly realized with horror that he hadn’t been paying attention to anything the official had said.

**_What part are we on?_ **

_He just asked if anyone objected._

**_Oh, we might be here for a while then._ **

The chorus of disapproval Juno had been waiting for never manifested. The other shoe refused to drop.

**_A wedding miracle._ **

Peter snorted and rolled his eyes. _Most of your friends like me._

Before today, he would have argued that he didn’t have any friends, but scanning the crowd, he saw people that he recognized. People whose eyes looked misty, people who held tissues, people ranging from his old boss on the police force to Valles Vicky.

People must love weddings to be willing to put aside their feelings for each other and be here.

Was it possible that these people counted themselves among Juno’s friends? The thought of it made Juno want to haul Peter out of the building and give the eloping thing one last try. Rita had her fun already, she’d be alright with it now. Probably.

Or she’d murder him for ruining his own wedding. It was a 50/50 toss up.

Odds Juno wasn't willing to take a gamble on anymore. He was a changed lady.

“Juno.”

It took a second for him to realize that Peter was speaking out loud and not in his mind.

Oh fuck, was it already time for vows?

“Juno, there are thousands of things that I could say to you, all of them true. I could say that you broke me out of a cycle of lies that had reduced me to being a shell of a person, always ready to fill myself up with whatever identity was convenient at the time. That I fell in love with you at first sight, which wouldn’t be strictly true. I think I fell in love with you when you tried that thing with the box cutter-” a few people laughed, Rita the loudest of them, “before that I was infatuated beyond belief. Belief is not something I’ve had a lot of, but you make me want to have more of it. I believe in you, and I love you. And that’s really all there is to say on the matter.”

A few more people chuckled.

Juno forced himself to speak, knowing that his throat was already starting to close in with the threat of tears. “I’m not so sure how to follow that. Peter, you’ve always had a way with words that I seem to lack, but I wanted to say a few things. I’ve always run away from things in my life, commitment most of all-” people snickered but Juno steamrolled right over them, “-but you ran first, after the mask. That was the first time in my life that I wanted to run towards something, instead of away from it. I didn’t actually run after you; actually, I think I almost got you arrested. Sorry. You ran after me no matter how many windows I tried to climb out of, or how many stupid mistakes I made. Thank you, and uh- I love you.”

He trailed off when Peter placed a hand on his cheek. They didn’t wait for the official to say anything before they crashed together in a kiss. Juno’s lip stain leaving a faint smudge against Peter’s mouth.

Peter pulled away long enough to place the rings on each of their fingers whispering into Juno’s ear, “I stole them back from the official less than five minutes after we gave them to her.”

Everyone cheered when the put upon official declared them married, neither of them bothering to separate from each other.

Juno could feel Peter’s emotions slide in next to his in his chest like a nervous bird caged against his heart. A hummingbird keeping time with his own nervous beat as they stepped away from the altar and into the crowd of people- friends, that had surrounded them. Rita being the first to hug the two and give her congratulations.

She was bawling, but her words were mostly understandable. It seemed like everyone else wanted to get in close and congratulate them, but Rita’s wild flailing and crying was keeping most people at bay.

She winked at him, and Juno cracked a smile.

She was doing it on purpose.

Gripping Peter’s hand, he whispered in his husband’s ear. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

They slipped away from Rita’s wild gesticulations and out the back of the building. Anyone else could offer their congratulations later. Preferably through the mail.

Because Juno Rose had somewhere he needed to be: by his husband’s side.


	3. Bring Us Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be fair, I don't know if this is going to be the last chapter. I might write more in this universe when I finally get on with listening to the rest of season 2. I'm sure we'll all need the fluff.

_Juno couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t see. He had no idea if Nureyev has made it out of the airlock._

_He had to have made it out of the airlock, there was enough time. Nureyev is quick when he wants to be._

_“Juno! Juno!” The sound is muffled, that’s good. That means he got out._

_A private eye’s last stand. It seems fitting that he’d be blind. So much of his life has relied on keen sight, his aim, one of the best. His attention to detail. His visual memory._

_Maybe it’s easier this way, to die here rather than relearn how to live. For so long he’d been getting into trouble. Almost begging for death. It makes a sick sort of sense that it would only appear now that he had something to live for. Something new he burned to discover._

_He’s said his goodbyes, put his heart on his sleeve for once._

_And dying? That was weightless._

**_Help me, help me, help me, help us. I am the last._ **

Juno Rose woke with a start, displacing his husband’s arm as he twisted on the mattress.

In the dark light of pre-dawn, Peter stirred slightly. Wordlessly, Juno sent a whisper of a caress through their mental link to sooth his husband back to sleep.

The pull of it almost lulled him back down, but he couldn't get the nightmare out of his mind. The last…. The last of what, exactly?

His feet swept the floor as he rose from the bed, silently as he could. Peter was alway sensitive to Juno leaving his proximity, but hopefully he would stay asleep, just this time.  

He needed to take a walk.

Juno shrugged into some clothes, nothing fancy, just a serviceable outfit that wasn’t his pajamas, which meant putting on any clothing at all. His blush reddened his entire face.

He made sure to lock the door behind him when he left.

The glowing streets of Hyperion City soothed Juno’s mind from it’s fevered state. The city’s tempo kept time with his heart, it beat along in pace with the thrum of the city. It didn’t sleep, and once upon a time he’d been the same way. It was enough that the city still felt like his home. Part of him had worried that if he left the city, he’d never come back the same. He was right, in a way, Juno Steel hadn’t come back. He would never come back. The city was in the care of Detective Rose now.

Not to be corny or anything.

The shock of something against his mind broke him from his internal monolog. It wasn’t Peter, it didn’t feel anything like his gentle hummingbird brush of emotion and reassurance.

This shock was a shriek. Like the cry of hawk. Hawks, hummingbirds, he was stuck on birds today.

It tugged on a live wire in Juno's mind. A raw wound that hadn’t patched over correctly. Something that had scarred in his mind.

He ran back to their apartment and back to Peter’s side, shaking him awake with an urgency that zipped through their bond.

“Juno, what is it? Hey? What’s wrong?” Peter muttered, rubbing his eyes clear of the Oldtown grit that had settled while they slept.

“We need to go.”

“Go where?”

“Go back.”

 

* * *

 

“I don’t like this,” Peter sighed, rubbing at his arm, which was as close to a nervous tick as the man ever displayed. Something that Juno usually did. It was something that Juno wondered about, if this bond let more than thoughts through, and if it did, what kind of effect were they having on each other? He hoped it was a good one.

“I’m not too keen on returning to somewhere we both almost died and were tortured either, you know?” Juno huffed, stepping closer to the rubble of the Martian ruins.

“And lost an eye.” Peter oh-so-helpfully reminded.

Juno turned to look at him and rolled the eye he had left.

Peter snickered.

The banter was helping to keep Juno’s mind off of what a massive mistake they were making. Going back to the ruins was probably suicide, or at least it was really fucking dumb, Alessandra and Sasha were going to have his head when they found out he’d done this. Especially without calling either of them first.

Better to beg forgiveness and all.

“Is the sound getting sharper?”

“No, it’s… quiet now. I think it’s happy we’re searching for it.”

“That’s not ominous.”

They walked deeper into the ruins. The debris of Miasma’s operation had been scattered all across the empty tomb. There’d been some stream crews here in the time since they’d left. Documenting the place, as the liked to call it. Not that anyone knew the whole story. A few of those ‘paranormal’ shows had ended up walking around the place jumping at echoes and shadows. Juno always watched those ones, they were funny.

“Why would something call you back here?” Peter’s tone took on a whispered quality.

Juno shrug, gun unholstered and in his hands.

There was an itch to his mind. A need to put this entire episode to rest. The fact that something had pulled him back here after all the time they’d spent together trying to move on from this infuriated him. For once Juno was working on getting past his traumas, instead of running from them. This specific trauma though…

Maybe to work through his trauma he had to face it.

_It’s gonna be okay._

Juno shook his head, the telepathic connection rang with a strange quality. Like there was interference in it.

**_Here._ **

Juno shot forward at the sound, running down a corridor and slipping on the dust as he rounded a corner. He knew exactly where he was going now. He had no idea how he couldn’t see it before.

He skid to a stop inside the chamber where he’d nearly died.

There was no way. It had been... months since they’d been here. There was no way she had survived.

As he walked forward, Juno saw the last thing he expected.

Thinking about it, it made sense. The Martians had created this device as a sort of suicide machine, a final way out. A send off.

And yet, Miasma had still been here. Martian enough to operate the device. Enough to be killed by the device.

And human enough to survive it.

In a manner of speaking.

In the pile of dust where Miasma had died, there was a tiny form in the dust. Something that had pulled itself back together from the remaining cells.

It was an infant.

“Fuck.”

Peter slid into the room with grace that was out of place in the ruin, his hand already on his lazer gun.

The infant squirmed, and something inside Juno snapped.

“Oh for fucks sake,” he hissed, ripping off his jacket and swaddling the infant in it.

_Juno, are you sure this is the best idea?_

**_Do I ever have good ones?_ **

_You married me._

**_You’ve got me there._ **

The baby looked up at him. It looked nothing like Miasma had, and as he looked down at it. The infant changed color to match his skin tone.

He was pretty proud that he didn’t drop it in surprise.

Peter drew up alongside him, looking down. He didn’t say anything, but Juno could feel his surprise prickle through their connection.

The baby looked up at him, and then babbled, sticking a very human looking chubby hand out before locking eyes with Peter. The infant scrunched up it’s face, and then it’s hair and eyes were changing to match Peter’s instead of Juno's. They stayed like that for a moment, and then its eyes faded back. A blue iris to match Juno’s eyes in Peter’s almond shape eyes, surrounded by thick eyelashes.

It waved chubby hands around in the air like it had just won a victory.

Juno sighed. He was definitely going soft. “We can’t just… leave it here.”

“I mean, if we’re taking it home then we should probably stop calling it an ‘it’.”

“This is crazy, we can’t do this,” Juno said, looking down at the infant that now suspiciously looked like it belonged to the both of them.

“You say that like it’s a question, but Juno, I know you and you can’t just leave this alone.”

**_Why are you always right?_ **

Juno sighed. Peter knew him well. The detective took a step back into his husband, borrowing from Peter’s strength with the contact. If they did this, they would be in so much trouble.

But Peter was right, they couldn’t just leave it here.

 

* * *

 

“What do babies need?” Juno was on the comm with Rita as soon as they were back in the car.

“Boss, what do you mean? Like a baby baby?”

“Rita, I’m not sure what other kind of baby I could mean.”

“You know, they’re’s this whole subculture that I saw on the streams the other week, a whole hour long documentary about-”

“I will give you a raise if you never bring it up again.”

“Don’t go pulling out all the stops on my account. Why do ya need to know things about babies though?”

“Rita please, can you just answer me?”

“Well, they’re gonna need a place to sleep, things to eat, a way to eat like a bottle or baby food spoons ‘nd they’re gonna need clothes, bedding, diapers probably too- babies poop a lot boss did you know babies poop a lot? I used to babysit one of my sister’s kids and I swear this kid was eating like, entire bales of grain rehydrate because this-”

“Rita! Stay on topic please.”

“You know, I’d be able to help more if I knew what was going on.”

Peter leaned over to grab the comm from Juno, flipping it around. “Thank you for your help, Rita. We’ll get back to you.”

The comm went staticy as Peter cut the connection.

“If Rita hears about it, she’ll tell Sasha before we can- and then we won’t be able to make a case for keeping her,” Peter said seriously as he drove.

The bundle in Juno’s arms squirmed, but he kept a hold of it as Peter threw the car into a sharp turn.

**_Keep?_ **

A line of tension brought Peter’s shoulders together, like a wire drawing him to the back of his seat.

Juno pointed a finger at him, “You heard her too that time!”

_Maybe._

“I can’t tell if you’re answering me or her.”

“Me neither.”

 

* * *

 

Oldtown wasn’t known for its stellar shopping centers; but well, nowhere in Hyperion City was great for shopping.

They stopped at a place Rita recommended, grabbing everything that they thought a baby might possibly need: everything from a crib to themed baby shoes. Peter was grabbing everything and throwing it into bags like a starving man at a buffet being told he could take a grabbag home.  

Juno was left to grab the practicalities: food, a carseat, diapers of some sort. If the baby even did that sort of thing.

**_We’re flying blind here._ **

_I know._

**_This is crazy right?_ **

_Crazy seems to be pointedly on brand for us._

Juno rolled his eyes, dressing the infant in the clothes they had just bought. It was all going on Peter’s card of course. A detective didn’t really make enough money to raise a kid.

Holy shit, they were going to be raising a kid.

 

* * *

 

“Oh my god,” Peter whispered when they walked in the door.

Juno was instantly put on alert, he would have gone for his gun but the baby in his arms wasn’t great for drawing from the hip. “What? What is it?”

“This apartment is a death trap for a child, we can’t live here,” Peter said in a toneless voice.

“What? This is my home- I’ve lived in this apartment for-”

“Too long, probably.”

Juno shifted the infant to his hip so he could hold it with one arm- her with one arm. He couldn’t keep sitting here and calling her ‘it’, they’d basically already adopted her.

Oh shit, they needed to adopt her. There’d be legal documents they’d need to forge- or create, or something.

He was so out of his depth.

“Peter, what are we gonna do? I mean-”

“Darling-” oh no, “don’t be mad,” oh _no_ , “but I may have already called Sasha.”

Well, that wasn’t the worst idea. Sasha was connected, and he was moderately loyal. She wouldn’t tell anyone else, that’s for sure.

Tell anyone else-

“If Rita finds out from someone else there’s gonna be hell to pay.”

For the first time, Peter looked appropriately horrified by something Juno had said. He set down all of the items and leaned against the wall, ran his fingers through his hair, twice, and sighed before looking around the apartment. It really was a mess.

“Didn’t we already tell her? We asked her for baby advice,” Peter reasoned.

He shook his head, “She’s not going to assume it’s a permanent thing unless we explicitly tell her.”

“She’s going to be sad we told Sasha first.”

“Sad or furious, it’s a toss up,” Juno shrugged.

“We could-”

“No.”

“I didn’t even say it yet!”

“I’m your husband, I know how you think.”

“But-”

“We are not making Rita the kid’s godmother.”

“Who else would you choose? Who else do you trust? Aside from me?”

Juno sat down on the couch. He was right, that didn’t make the idea any easier. The idea of Rita running around keeping pace with an energetic kid. He was doomed. Hyperion City was doomed. This kid would be running Mars before she was ten.

“Alright, we’ll do it. After Sasha tells us everything is squared away.”

 

* * *

 

“Juno, out of all the stupid stunts you’ve pulled, this one by far has been the biggest headache for me,” Sasha’s voice was furious on the comms.

His hackles raised at that, “Gee, I’m sorry Sasha, next time I have a kid I’ll be sure to clear it with you first.”

“You found the kid you didn’t make her.”

Peter leaned over, the infant in his lap now- she seemed content to wave her fists around and chew on the toy in her mouth. He cleared his throat, “That’s not technically true. We kind of created her, on accident- through murder, maybe.”

“Congratulations Juno, you broke your husband. He can’t even string a proper sentence together anymore! I thought this headache would end when you two got married. Do you know how much work it was to smooth over everyone’s feathers so you two could legally get married? He was wanted by Dark Matters! You owe me so much. You have no idea how much paperwork I’ve done for you.”

“Sasha, please. She’s a baby. And she’s our responsibility.”

“Ugh, you’re a bleeding heart, _Rose_.”

His heart seized, was she saying no? Would she say no? Or worse would she just report it into her superiors and wash her hands of the whole situation. She could, she didn’t owe him anything. He hadn’t been there for her at times- it was common knowledge that he hadn’t been a great friend. Hadn’t been able to take care of himself. Let alone anyone else. She might think it was the best course of action.

Time to bring out his final card.

“Sash.”

“Oh no.”

“Sassy Sash.”

“No, Juno don’t you dare.”

“Sassy Sass, please.”

The line went quite with a crackle. It would work, it had worked before in the past, even when it really shouldn’t have. 

“Fine! Fine, I’ll get your stupid kid put in the system as your kid. I’m sending Peter the files now, have him send over the information I need, you’re hopeless on a computer. Don’t call me unless the city is going to be blown up.”

“Thank you, Sasha.”

Juno took the baby while Peter pulled out his… computer thing-y and got to work on whatever Sasha had sent them.

“Okay so we’re putting both of us down as parents. Yeah?” Peter said.

“Mmm.”

He looked into the baby’s eyes. They were hooded and half closed, maybe if they were lucky she would fall asleep and stay asleep for a while. It was still strange to see the combination of his and Peter’s features on the baby’s face, but it was… nice. It warmed something in his heart that he’d never known was cold before.

“And Rita as her godmother.,” Peter said.

“Mhm.”

“And we’ll put her down on the ballot for Mayor and run her campaign on the premise that everyone needs a cat and cats would make Mars great,” Peter said.

“Sounds good.”

Peter set the computer aside.

“Juno, you’re not listening.”

He looked up, Peter looked concerned. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”

“About?”

“This is our kid.”

“Yeah, currently in the process of getting that paperwork completed, hard to miss that my love.”

“What are we going to call her?”

Peter placed his hand over Juno’s, reaching over to brush his thumb along the baby’s cheek. She stirred slightly before settling down into a deeper slumber, carried away by the blanket she was wrapped in.

“I’ve got some ideas.”

There was silence in the apartment as they conferred with each other mentally, all the while Clarity Duchess Rose slept on unaware of her fathers having a conversation with each other.

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my profile for links you can find me at.


End file.
